Best Buy to Offer iPhone 3G S Insurance

So we all know that AT&T, for whatever reason, does not offer insurance for any iPhone. It seems as if Best Buy is now stepping up to the plate to offer it's customers some iPhone 3G S insurance, Geek Squads Black Tie Protection.

This is great news for some of you but keep in mind it comes at a pretty hefty price. Normal cell phone insurance via Best Buy will cost you anywhere from $7 to $10 a month. Not the case with iPhone 3G S, Best Buy has raised this fee to a cool $15 a month. This premium fee is most likely due to the full retail price of the 3G S being so high at $599 and $699.

Good news is that this insurance will cover all sorts of damage - liquid damage, cracked screens, cracked casing, etc... All you have to do is bring your damaged iPhone into any Best Buy, they will fix it or replace your device on the spot.

So at $15/month is this something you'd be willing to pay for some peace of mind?

I have mine insured through my homeowner's insurance for $25/year with a floater policy; Statefarm. Anyway, can't you just get the product replacement plan from Best Buy on it? They always offer that to me for everything at the register.

I have my original iPhone 2G I bought in 2007. No insurance and no damage. If you really care about your purchase you'll be careful. Unless you've had like 10 beers... like I did when my Moto Razr fell in the toilet. Lesson learned.

I wouldn't pay this much. Just save the money and get it fixed. There are great places that will service iPhones these days. Plus anything that's been wrong with my phone in the past apple has helped with for free. I think its all on the situation and how nice you are :)

I'm sure Best Buy's cost is far short of the stated 599/699 price in the article. (I'd guess they get it for close to half that, which still leaves Apple 100% profit over manufacturing costs if history is any guide.
So you have to figure that Best Buy has to recover 300/350 in premiums to replace one phone, which means that if you pay this insurance for two years they can afford to replace your phone.
I expect most users make it thru two years without needing dropping the phone, so this is going to be very lucrative insurance for Best Buy.
Further, since theft/loss is not covered you have to toss out one of the biggest risk factors.
I agree with others, that putting the money into a good sturdy case is a far better investment. Especially if it covers the whole phone and hides it from the eyes of thieves.
But for those that have to show off the phone (coolness factor seriously eroded by the $99 price) this might be an option.

So we do offer the 15 dollar a month protection plan (not insuarance). It comes out to be 360 for 24 months.
What's so great about Geek Squad Black Tie Protection?
1. No deductable.
2. You don't have to deal with some indian guy on the phone.
3.We do give loaner phones while we fix the phone. (iPhone will be rplaced with in 3 days)
4. We do replace battery and the charger!
If you think about it ATT charges $5 a month for smart phones and $125 deductable so you you pay 365 for 2 years thats if you break your phone once.So yea its great deal!
@ Christin you can save money and that might cover the cost of the damage. Just to get the LCD online is $140 that doesnt include labor think what would apple charge you???

@Icebike, for every person who actually makes it two years with no damage there are the ones who will come in with damaged phone multiple times. So it goes both ways. Granted, I would never pay $15/month for this let alone buy my iPhone from Best Buy. But again, it's simply an option.

@ Jeremy. Yea dont buy your iPhone at best buy go to att and dont get reward zone points for your purchase ($5 every $250) And pay twice for everything that goes with the iPhone and not to mention no insuarance!!!

@Jeremy Sikora:
Interesting statistics (I presume you pulled these numbers from the same place I pull my estimates). ;-)
I know people still using the 1st phone which never gave them any problem, but our company has had 7 different phones for 4 lines of service within the first year. (All covered by warranty).
I wish there was a good source of info on warranty repair rates. The Fanboys over on the Apple Forums insist its no more than 2%. But watching the Geniuses at the Apple store for an hour will tell you its a steady stream all day long.
Maybe Best Buy will release some numbers (I seriously doubt it, I doubt Apple would let them).
Any polls on this subject are largely useless, because those who do not have problems do not surf the web looking for solutions.
Further, I suspect the vast majority of iPhone users are not tech geeks like folks here, they just go to Apple and get it replaced.
I do worry about the second year of my ATT contract with no Warranty coverage.
@BBYM Thanks for pointing out its a Protection Plan, and not insurance. Suggestion: (If you actually work for Best Buy) Suggest to corporate that they develop and sell a Upgrade Plan, where you will take the old phones in trade, and offer new phones with each new Apple Release for a monthly fee. If Apple stays with yearly releases and ATT stays with 2 year contracts, you have a pretty large market for this service, and you still can flood the third world with wiped used phones.

@ Icebike. Yes I'm working at Best Buy Mobile. It's a good idea whatsoever we are working on lots of improvements currently fallowing the carphonewarehouse's lead in technology at UK. We can't jump in to anything major right away. We are currently working on our protection plan (non iPhone)to get a better service provider for faster repair time and to be able to handle more valume.. Also I highly doubt Apple or ATT would allow that.

Ive had my first gen 8gb iphone for 16 months and have dropped it 3 times, twice on concrete and it has slid screen side first on rocks and only has a few scratches on the side from all that. So Ive been lucky and careful as can be. $15 a month is too much for those of us that arent made of money. I like Best Buy but refuse to do this. $5 a month would be alot better as someone mentioned thru your insurance comp.

@ Barry if you replace your smartphone once(125 deductable..) with carier insurance you pay 365 dollars for 24 month. With us if you replace your phone 10 times you still pay 360! I am a sales consaltant at best buy mobile and don't work with commission so Honestly I really believe this protection plan we offer is lot better then Carier's!

@BBYM I don't know if you are still around, but I would love for you to explain the BBuy repair replacement policy for the iPhone to me. I just went into my local store and got very different info. Namely:
**No on-the-spot repair or replacement.
Everything is shipped off and the average turnaround is 7-10 days. You do get a loaner phone, but not an iPhone. Your data is not ported over and when your phone returns some 10 days later all of your data is gone.
*Water damage does not include any manner of submersion. Only surface moisture.
*They also told me that while you don't offer black-tie for iPhones bought outside of BBuy; you do offer repair services BUT they could not give me any specifics on turnaround time or pricing. You would need to send it off and "see what we can do"
*Most interesting to me was that they claimed that "the most advanced trained best buy employees" actually handle your repairs in a best buy facility if you have black tie. If you dont have black tie then it is repaired by apple techs.
Anyway, thanks for the information you have already provided. I would love for you to clear up some of this for me. I was told this by a BBuy and GeekSquad cat who were standing together in customer sercvice.
Thanks again.

I thought I was wasting my money, but it fell out of my hands as I Kade an attempt to catch it, and it smashed against the brick floor and cracked my entire screen. If I didn't have my insurance, I'd probably be crying. But since I do, it's actually pretty funny. I'm really glad that I got insurance.

Paid $40 with state farm, no deductible $699 coverage against everything that you didn't do on purpose. Never submitted a claim, so I don't know if this is true, but I did get the coverage. BTW I gor car and renters insurance at the same time, don't know if that makes any difference whatsoever.

Looking to buy an iphone 3gs and came across insuremyiphone.com. It insures even 3gs iphone for what seems a cheaper price than squaretrade or BBuy. Apparently it's an insurance company by the name of Safeware that now offers iphone insurance and covers accidental damage, liquid spill, power surge, theft, fire, flood, & vandalism as well. Has a $50 deductible per incident. Price varies by phone. There is no limit to number of claims supposedly. I checked out on BBB and looks legitimate but check for yourself.

The best buy insurance covers any accidental damage, normal wear and tear on the phone, minor water damage up to 4 water marks (which shouldn't cause a problem cause anyone with a brain isn't going to just let their iphone sit at the bottom of pool for an hour), there are no deductables, and unlimited number of claims, and yes a loaner phone is offered but of course it's not going to be an iphone otherwise you wouldn't have any reason to bring it back, there is a 7-10 day turnaround, but waiting a week or so for a phone is no big deal. BBY doesn't replace an unrepairable iphone with a referb, the only referbs they carry are the 3g.
Accidents happen, you could buy your iphone and walk out the door to go somewhere else to get it insured and drop it in the parking lot, after that BBY can't insure it and neither can anyone else. If you splurge $15 when you bu it it'll be covered for the next 30 days and in that 30 days you can look for "cheaper" insurances, but at least it'll be covered while you're doing it. If you do happen to find a better insurance all you have to do is call 1800geeksquad and cancel it with no cancellation fees.

iRepair Team LLC offers insurance plans that are superior to all other insurance or warranty plans out there.
I am the President and CEO of iRepair Team LLC. We have been in business for almost 2 years now and service customers all across the nation.
We do not require that the iPhone be mailed in to us. We offer two plans. One covering water damage and the entire phone for failure. This plan covers everything but theft and loss.
The other plan covers glass and lcd breakage as well as battery failure for 1 year for only $35 for the 3g and $45 for the 3gs. Only a $10 deductible is required for the 3g and $20 for the 3gs. 5 claims made me made per year.
There is simply no comparison to our insurance plans.
Please see iRepairTeam.com/iphoneinsurance for more information or call 888-269-5658 for more information.

Such a small amount of money is more than worth it for speedy replacement and peace of mine. I've had two replacements in 1 year; one for a cracked screen, one for a software fault caused by a short drop. Both were completely random accidents-I am extremely careful with my phone but these things do happen. There's no way I'd cheap out on £10 a month for a phone worth hundreds of times that amount. Plus I got two free 16gb 3Gs upgrades because o2 don't stock my old 3G anymore. Hehe :-)
Paid out: £100 insurance
Recieved £1000 worth of upgrades
Nice :-)

checked out Safeware. If you get there insuance for one year, its $108. But if you have to replace the phone within the first 6 months you have to pay the full amount of the iphone. After 6 months they send you a check for the amount that they cover and you pay $50. Doesn't sound to good to me!!

I figure you can't but my friend is insisting that I can buy BB insurance for my iPhone which I bought at an AT&T store. I haven't seen anything that says otherwise, but I don't want to waste gas to find out I can't.

@LJ the phone needs to be purchased at Best buy. I also have been looking at insurance for iphone. My upgrade is coming up and want an iphone. I've been looking at statefarm and other similiar homeowners insurance. In the fine print they actaully say they can rise your premium and deductible everytime you make a claim. Safeware has a $50 deductible and is 120 a year. I'm going to go with Best buy's insurance because I don't want any hidden fees to show up later. They seem the most legit and also the $15 is pretty high, I tend to drop things a lot and no very prone to losing things. Plus, I rather go into the store and have things handled there instead of shipping my phone across the country.

Thanks for the mention Brian!
Naomi from SquareTrade here. As Jeremy and others have pointed out, unfortunately Applecare does not cover drops, spills or other accidents... nor can you get iPhone insurance from AT&T.
This is one of the reasons many iPhone owners and Mac enthusiasts look for alternatives to Applecare -- with the iPhone, studies show nearly 80% of failures come from accidents.
As you weigh the options for iPhone insurance or an extended warranty, consider asking these questions to ensure you are getting the best value possible for your protection needs:

Will it cover water damage, including FULL IMMERSION?

Does the insurance/warranty have a deductible?

What happens if they can’t fix your item?

Does the provider have a rated insurance company backing up its protection plan?

What is the provider’s track record – does it have a reliable history of excellent customer service? (Are you able to find any reviews for their insurance or warranty claim service?)

Will the provider allow you to cancel for a full or prorated refund?

As Brian mentioned, SquareTrade is one option for you to consider and the only warranty provider with thousands of consistent 5 out of 5 star customer reviews. I'm of course a bit biased since I work there too, but I'd suggest you ask these same questions to compare SquareTrade for yourself.
You can get the full details here (including coverage details, price comparison, customer reviews, Gizmodo and other press, etc.): http://www.squaretrade.com/iphone Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to give us a call anytime at 877-WARRANTY.
Hope this helps – good luck with your decision & enjoy your new iPhone!
Regards,
Naomi

Take a look at this program. For as little as $69 a year you can protech your iPhone. This company is the one that does the acual repair, not a third party program that sends your phone out. They are the experts when it comes to any issue related to your iPhone. Check them out its great.

Take a look at this program. www.iphoneprotech.com For as little as $69 a year you can protech your iPhone. This company is the one that does the acual repair, not a third party program that sends your phone out. They are the experts when it comes to any issue related to your iPhone. Check them out its great.

Best Buy "protection" has been nothing short of a headache!! It takes them a month to deem the phone repairable or replacible. Keep in mind that I am still paying the insurace premium for the month they have the phone as well as the montly service charge for the phone to Verizon! Yes, they do offer loaner phones if they have one available (each store only gets about 2-3) and your are willing to shell out another $150 that month until they fix your issue!

Hi All,
well speaking of insurance for the iphone i found a company Phone Guard Global they cover accidental damage, water damage and normal hardware failure they have no deductibles like the other company's and cover full retail price for replacement not the upgraded price. So visit www.phoneguardglobal.com you can also follow them on Facebook.
Janet

I would not bother with insurance! It was a waste of time and money. After an hour at the store, where I left my phone to be sent in for REPAIR, I left the store without a phone - not even a loaner since they didn't have one. I called after the weekend (3 days later) to find out my phone had just been sent in. I have to wait a week to find out IF it can be fixed - then I might get a phone.
I do not recommend getting your Iphone or the insurance through Best Buy!!

Well i found a site and iphone app called phone guard global, there prices are the best on market and offer theft/loss option and also cover accidental damage water damage and full retail replacement cost. so visit the site www.phoneguardglobal.com and down load there app on itunes.
Sam

I thought it was awesome to get this insurance until my daughters iphone was just stolen tonight at work. We called to turn in a claim to them, and even tho the BestBuy sales clerk said we were covered for theft, we are NOT. Basically the price is so low for the iphone 3g, I mean online thru ATT they start at $9.99 for the ones with a ding on the back, but you have a cover so no one knows. But new theyre only $49. DONT PAY THESE PEOPLE FOR NOTHING.

I've been surfing online greater than 3 hours today, yet I never discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours. It is lovely value sufficient for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content material as you probably did, the net will likely be much more useful than ever before.

You could definitely see your expertise in the work you write. The sector hopes for even more passionate writers such as you who aren't afraid to mention how they believe. All the time go after your heart.